childrens services

This research, funded by the City Bridge Trust, is the result of collaborative work in London by Refuge, a national domestic violence charity, and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), a children’s organisation that specialises in protecting children from abuse and neglect.

Report that provides details of how safeguarding practices have been improved in the areas of leadership and management; recruiting, maintaining and retaining a highly competent workforce; quality assurance and performance management; referral and assessment processes and procedures; and partnership working.

It gives localised accounts of practice implementation and, where possible, evidence of outcomes.

This report tracks the rise in spending on children’s social care over the last decade in England and Wales, highlights how it is predicted to fall in 2011–12, and projects how this downward trend might develop in future years.

Finally, it estimates how spending reductions (particularly in early intervention) might affect the overall demand for and cost of children’s services over the medium term.

Annual report that presents evidence from inspection and regulatory visits undertaken between September 2010 and August 2011 by the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted). It takes evidence from inspection activity across the full range of Ofsted's statutory remit, which includes early years and childcare, provision for education and skills in schools, colleges and adult learning, children's social care and local authority services for children.

The tragic deaths of Victoria Climbié in 2000 and Peter Connelly in 2007 brought the difficulties of identifying and dealing with severe neglect and abuse sharply into public focus. These children died, following weeks and months of appalling abuse, at the hands of those responsible for caring for them.

The public outcries that followed asked how the many different professionals who had seen these children and their families in the weeks before their deaths could have failed to recognise the extent of the children’s maltreatment.

This knowledge review sets out to identify what is known about the social care needs of children with complex health care needs (CHCN) and their families, and about the services designed to meet those needs. Review published by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) in December 2007.

Statistical release that provides provisional figures on the number of children referred to and assessed to be in need by Local Authority Social Care Services and the number of children who were the subject of a child protection plan for the year ending 31 March 2011.

Study that presents a critical, thematic analysis of recommendations from 33 of the serious case reviews (cases of child death or serious injury through abuse or neglect) completed in 2009-2010.

The central aim of the study was to consider what part recommendations can play in aiding agencies and individuals "to learn lessons to improve the way in which they work both individually and collectively to safeguard and promote the welfare of children" (HM Government 2010:246).

Report of a web survey to ask children for their views and experiences of recent Ofsted inspections of their children's homes or boarding schools. Homes and schools that were recently inspected were written to, and asked to pass on invitations to children there to fill in the survey. The survey ran from January to February 2011.

There is a need to set up governance arrangements for both children’s centres and extended schools in order to ensure public accountability. This toolkit is published by Children's Trust Partnership, Hertfordshire.